We Just Have to Listen to Them: Preschool Children Can Express Feelings About Their Bodies Pertaining to the "Expending Energy" Result of Physical Exercise

Aim: To identify and understand what children think and feel about their bodies after intense physical exercise.

Methods: Individual interviews were held with 679 preschool children following intensive physical exercise in order to examine their reactions to intentional physical exercise. An analysis of what the children had to say facilitated drawing conclusions regarding their ability to grasp the feelings that accompany expending energy and the way they make use of expressions and concepts that suggest physical changes following the activities.

Results: Children are able to express and describe feelings relating to four different aspects of physical exercise after engaging in it: (1) physical aspect: 80% of the children made reference to the physical aspect (e.g. cardiac activity, perspiration, breathing, heat, fatigue); (2) emotional aspect: 47% of the children expressed themselves in emotional terms; most of them expressed enjoyment, fun and capability; (3) cognitive aspect: 47% of the children made cognitive references that included use of mathematical-logical concepts and images, such as "many times it was hard to go up and go down" or "my heart beats two times as fast"; sound arguments such as "I had fun because I jumped a lot"; and, cause-effect relationships such as "if I jump, then my feet hurt"; (4) `energy expenditure` aspects: 71% of the children offered a scientific explanation of energy expenditure processes resulting from intense physical exercise; 20% of the children also noted the sense of enjoyment that accompanied it.

Conclusions: This early exposure to phenomena occurring in the child`s body in the course of exercise, and the child’s drawing preliminary conclusions regarding the pace of the activity and the amount of energy needed to perform it, are likely to enhance the future understanding of the balance between energy intake and expenditure. The fact that 71% of the children expressed feelings and physical changes when exerting themselves, and made use of scientific concepts that describe "expending energy", suggests that it may be possible to address the subject of energy using the thing closest to the child – his/her body.